tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916121742642761450.post2129913956903181983..comments2018-02-19T00:52:00.447-08:00Comments on Of Bacteria and Men: Microbe Hunters by Paul de KruifRobin Teconhttps://plus.google.com/113468604379406807613noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916121742642761450.post-9716457628664806552015-01-29T07:27:20.067-08:002015-01-29T07:27:20.067-08:00Oh thank you! Interesting that Ross sued De Kruif....Oh thank you! Interesting that Ross sued De Kruif. Controversial, but nevertheless, a very fun book to read. Nowadays it would be impossible for a writer to get away with the inflammatory remarks De Kruif ventured to write in his book. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916121742642761450.post-26654168474744094882015-01-29T05:03:19.509-08:002015-01-29T05:03:19.509-08:00Hi,
Glad you liked the book! It is indeed quite so...Hi,<br />Glad you liked the book! It is indeed quite something. Regarding its accuracy, I wouldn&#39;t dare to give an estimate on fact vs. fiction, but we can assume I guess that the reported thoughts of the protagonists are pure inventions. An interesting abstract here (unfortunately the whole article is not available) about this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3293166.<br />Robin Teconhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15672357119122183363noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5916121742642761450.post-75037765782680381342015-01-28T15:20:44.540-08:002015-01-28T15:20:44.540-08:00I started reading this book last week on your reco...I started reading this book last week on your recommendation. 2015 has just started but I already feel like it&#39;s going to break the top 5 of books I&#39;ve read this year. Brilliant stuff. <br /><br />The writing style is GREAT! It&#39;s not dry and detached like a lot of academic writing usually is. The Metchmikoff chapter for instance had me laughing out loud multiple times:<br /><br />&quot;Almost at once Roux and Metchnikoff made an important find; their experiments were ingenious and they had about them a certain tautness and clearness that was strangely un-Metchnikoffian.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;To one of these, the science of old age, he gave the sonorous name &quot;Gerontology&quot; and he gave the name &quot;Thanatology&quot; to the science of death. What awful sciences they were; ... the observations he made in them were so inaccurate that old Leeuwenhoek would have turned over in his grave had he known about them; the experiments Metchnikoff made, to support these sciences, would have caused Pasteur to foam with indignation that he had ever welcomed this outlandish Russian to his laboratory ... &quot;<br /><br />By the way, if you had to give an estimate, how much of what&#39;s in the book would you say is fact and how much would you say is fiction. The book gives insight into how some of the famous microbiologists worked, but I am not sure what to believe and what to throw out. I wish he had provided references or something. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com